A really, really good roguelite-side mode.

A completely new and really large map created for the DLC to explore, and the mechanic that everything you do in a full run persists between each character you pick playing after one another. Supplies you leave in a safe spot can be grabbed by your next character, and so on.

Certain builds completely break the balance, but that's on par for the course with the base game. And runs aren't super different from one another, even in the same "full run", most differences being some areas that get repopulated with enemies, as well as some areas being more dangerous due to power outages or fire outbreaks.

The different characters you can play as do change the way you play, as each of them effectively features what is a significantly reduced skilltree from the basegame, usually focusing on specific aspects of it, with very few new skills being added.

Overall, the gameplay loop is still largely the same as the base game, and I personally only recommend grabbing this DLC if you really want more of the base game with a few tweaks.

Приємний десерт після основної гри у вигляді роуглайту. Спочатку ніби трохи важко, все ще таке невідоме, якісь нові противники, не знаєш що робити, а годинничок то тікає (з часом кожне проходження стає все важчим, тож бажано планувати всі свої дії наперед). А потім, коли вже вивчив локації, назбирав грошей та прокачав персонажів, то гра перетворюється у цікавий тайм менеджмент, де нам треба по черзі врятувати 5 людей з місячної бази, котра з кожним проходженням потрохи змінюється, так ще й способи порятунку мають бути різними.

I was pretty skeptical about the prospect of stapling a roguelite mode onto a game that is about exploring a setting that is fueled by its strong sense of place. How do you make a location that is as interesting to explore as Talos I but also have it shift and change across dozens of runs? In the end I think that Mooncrash pulls off this feat with aplomb. The sense of familiarity you develop with the moon base is constantly being fucked with by new hazards, enemy types, and full on room variations that are just different enough to keep you on your toes.

I think a problem inherent to a lot of roguelites is that the final run feels kind of anti-climactic due to you just have complete mastery over the mechanics and also have gained so much power that you can steam roll over nearly any problem. I think that's exacerbated a bit here by the delay loop time item that allows you to just completely avoid taking on higher level enemies or even allowing enemies to repopulate, so on a perfect run by the time you get to character 4 or 5 there's almost no major threats standing in your way, you're pretty much just making a beeline directly to your escape route. I think this offers a pretty neat reward for players that plan their route through a run smartly, but at the same time it does make the ending of your final run feel very anticlimactic. Luckily there is a final sequence as a part of the framing device of the narrative that makes things have a bit more satisfying of a conclusion.

I think the problems here are extraordinarily minor though. Overall this is one of my favorite roguelites or immersive sims that I've played, and just by virtue of tying the two together so well it should be applauded. I'm much more likely to dip my toes back into this than the base game which I think is one of the highest complements you can pay to any DLC.

Pretty cool roguelike version of the main game, but unfortunately loses imo the best part of the original game which was the atmosphere of exploring Talos I, finding emails and audio logs which told the stories of the people who lived and worked there, even the fun evidence you'd find of things you'd read/ heard about earlier on like the dnd character sheets, the gloo snowman and the underground operator fighting ring.

That kind of charm is missing in this dlc where most of the characters stories are told in the first person via cutscenes, and even then the 5 characters are never given much personality.

Playtime: 15 Hours
Score: 9/10

Wow... This is seriously one of the best DLCs I have ever played and I'm not exaggerating! I don't tend to play DLC unless its story related, or is a full on expansion and Prey Mooncrash just ticks all the boxes for me. It easily could have been its own stand alone expansion/game, that some single player games by Bethesda and Sony release.

Prey Mooncrash is a roguelite that has you play as a employee of Kasma, a rival corporation to Transtar, and you go into this simulation of Transtar's moonbase that was overrun by Typhon to find out what happened. You play as five different characters in this simulation: a volunteer who was experimented on, an engineer, a security officer, the director of the base and the custodian who has an interesting role to play in the story. You start with one character and your goal is to escape, unlock new characters, and escape with all five in a single run.

Gameplay wise, it can be more forgiving then other roguelites as you do keep your upgrades for each of your characters, and you can also find fabrication plans for different grades of weapons, healing items etc... This allows you to then spend sim points, which is the games currency on the plans you have found, so you can equip your character with a loadout before each mission. You get sim points, for completing objectives, killing enemies, finding plans and dead employees etc...

One of my issues with the base game, was the difficulty wasn't balanced properly and felt very unfair on anything higher then easy. Here however, its balanced a lot better, via corruption levels. There's five levels and the longer you spend in the simulation, the higher the levels go, spawning tougher enemies. You can find items that slow down the timer which are very useful. But it just overall felt more balanced and fair compared to the base game. Another thing I liked was that when you escape for the first time with each character, you then unlock a side mission with them, which helps fill in their backstory and give some storytelling elements. These were all fun to do, and help break up the gameplay from just escaping. I also liked how the characters were connected to each other in small ways and it helped flesh out the moonbase as a cool setting. I will say the Directors side mission, was very short compared to the others and very dull which was disappointing, especially since shes directly connected to Morgan and Alex from the base game.

One negative is you will be going to the same locations a lot over and over, as there's the moon crater, along with 4 main zones that you travel back and forth between. The levels aren't randomly generated like other roguelites and are handcrafted levels, which I overall prefer. They do switch it up a bit by changing the environmental hazards, or having one zone with no power, so you have to either restore power or divert power from another area. Wasn't a huge issue for me, but it is something that did get a bit dull towards the end. Also as you progress you have to keep going out of the simulation back to your main character, to hear pointless exposition or do some mundane task. Reminded me of the Assassin Creed games, where you have to exit the animus and do boring stuff, when you just want to get back in and play the game properly again.

Otherwise, this DLC is really perfect and honestly more replayable then the main game. I love the base game a lot, but the lack of consequence or real difference with the choices you make, didn't make it as replayable. Prey Mooncrash sort of reminded me of Borderlands, in you always encounter something different in a playthrough or run. Borderlands it was just the weapons, but Prey Mooncrash truly did procedural generation justice, and showed how to properly do it in games!

Haces una obra maestra y uno de los mejores imsim de la historia, Bethesda decide llamarla Prey porque sí y no hacerle nada de marketing, el juego flopea

Decides sacarle un DLC con la misma premisa e idea que vuestro próximo juego completo para experimentar cómo funcionaría un roguelite imsim y creas otra obra maestra que es mejor que ese siguiente juego

Ninguno vende una puta mierda en su momento y la gente se va de la empresa, este juego nació para morir y ser apreciado por quienes debía unos años después y me da mucha pena

Prey’s main game is a first draft for Mooncrash. All of Prey’s ideas fuse together in a way they never did in the main campaign, and really no other immersive sim has ever achieved anything like this. For once, a roguelike mode isn’t just an afterthought. It puts Prey’s systems, tools, and enemies into a single, large map that changes with each run, like a puzzle box of shifting pieces. The floor plan is the same, but that familiarity only gets you so far with changing hazards, enemies, and an increasing threat level that you have to outrun or find ways to stave off until you can complete your objectives.

The fact that you play as 5 different characters (6, counting the simulation’s pilot) each with their own motives and objectives, makes this a story worth playing too. But the real reason is that each character is its own class with a unique upgradeable skill tree. Beating the game means escaping with all 5 in a single run, but to do that each one needs the others' skills to fix, unlock, or hack elements of the environment to enable the rest of the team to exit. By the end, you're going to be jotting down a checklist of what you need each survivor to do, and using every skill you've learned to navigate the station as quickly as possible. This is the real genius of Mooncrash: how it forces you to master every system. No more just leveling up your combat skills and barreling through. No more "just sneak by the guys to get to the end." The roguelike loop plus the fact that the game forces you to play all 5 character classes means you're going to be shooting, hacking, repairing, sneaking and psi blasting your way out of here. But you still can't fully predict when and where you'll need to use these skills. There is no way around thinking on your feet, and your final run will be uniquely yours.

This is the best immersive sim ever made and the pinnacle of Arkane’s work—and with the changes it has undergone, it’s likely to stay that way.

Really really good. I know this gets compared (favorably) to Deathloop a lot but they're very different beasts - if all you come to Arkane for is gameplay, I guess this is mostly just a stronger version (since it has a backbone of Prey's incredible systems). Deathloop, however, has much more engaging characters, a charming world, great art design - things that I definitely missed in Mooncrash. Many of my favorite aspects of Arkane games are their lived-in worlds, exploring all their secrets, and admiring their incredible visual style. Mooncrash largely fails at all these since it's mostly just a rearranging and repurposing of Prey's assets, without the meticulous worldbuilding or story.

Mooncrash still fuckin bangs, though, because it's a fantastic way to utilize Prey's systems. The base game is a brilliant immersive sim with some of the most in-depth stim-and-response in any game - there's many ways to approach each obstacle, and many many branching paths with barriers to find. Depending on your build and your playstyle, however, this means that it's pretty easy to default to a few ways of traversing through the world - forgoing the gloo gun for the leverage skill, taking hacking where the huntress boltcaster may have been more rewarding.

Mooncrash makes the wonderful decision to separate out Morgan's skill set from the base game into 5 separate characters, which really forces you to understand and use the entirety of each character's skillset. You have to escape the moonbase with each character, so you really do have to learn each of them - which rooms they can get into, and how. Which enemies to take out and which to run from. Add to this some new and improved enemies, new weapon upgrades, and an ever-increasing timer that spawns harder and harder enemies as you progress, and Mooncrash really feels like a puzzle that you have to solve. As you progress what story there is, even more systems reveal themselves, too - more ways for the station to fuck itself up, forcing you to find ways to power doors, or avoid radiation, or get past a fire. It almost makes me wish I had played Mooncrash first, so that I'd go into Prey primed with the knowledge and the creativity necessary to really enjoy and exploit its systems to the fullest.